Growing up a bonafide comic geek, my circle of friends would occasionally pose the question: What powers would you want to have? It was always a gas to hear the reasoning behind the power choices. One of my favorites discussed was the power to manipulate time…usually for criminal and perverted acts. My choices were varied at first, from super strength, to invisibility, and finally settling on Telekinesis. It was the one power that seemed limitless. You want to lift a car? Done. You want to fly? Done. You want to stay dry in the rain? Done. I could go on, but I’ll assume you get the picture. When tasked to see Chronicle, of course I jumped at the opportunity.

Until I realized it was a ‘found footage’ film, which meant shaky camera shots, poor composition, and weird angles that may or may not get the scene. So, yeah, I’m not a big fan.

I found myself pleasantly surprised, however, when watching Chronicle. Sure, there was every aspect that I hated about ‘found footage films’ present front and center; however, I think it was handled fairly well, and thankfully only a fairly short amount of time was spent on the hand held aspect of the cam. Once the boys get their powers, the shots get smoother, as one of them uses their Telekinetic ability to keep the cam afloat. Ingenious.

The other issue I had was that the plot might have been taken from a 2002 film called The Surge (or The Source, depending on where you’re from.) That movie was about a group of friends that stumble onto a rock in the forest that imbues them with powers – not at all dissimilar from Chronicle. Thankfully, that’s about all they share as the stories they tell branch off sharply from there.

As the boys fine tune their powers, all kinds of shenanigans ensue. Unfortunately, for those of us that previously had watched the trailers online and on TV, there won’t be many surprises coming that way. The hilarity doesn’t last long; however, as Andrew (Dane DeHaan, who incidentally, looks strikingly like he could be Leonardo DiCaprio’s brother) allows his home life and school life to affect his increasingly reckless behavior, boiling to the inevitable pulse pounding showdown between friends.

Chronicle does a passable job in creating a sympathetic villain in Andrew. He’s bullied at school, his father is abusive, his mother is terminally ill, and he barely has any friends. The pieces were in place, but the execution seemed lacking, as the only sympathy I could muster for him was superficial at best. His relationship with his mom was never solidified, or portrayed deep enough for you to see how he felt about her. There were glimpses, but nothing that convinced me his descent into madness was believable. Likewise with the abusive father. I got the impression the abuse was only recent, as his father was unable to cope with his wife’s ailment and recent job loss, but the resentment Andrew shows would indicate a longer stint as a punching bag than I’d imagined.

Those few hiccups aside, I enjoyed Chronicle. The story was good, and the way they altered camera shots to piece together the story kept it interesting. The special effects delivered most of the time, though there were a few noticeable missteps. And the acting was well done, considering how difficult it is to act like you’re not acting. All the boys handled that task well.

If you were on the fence about seeing Chronicle, hop off it now and go see it. You could do worse at the theater.

High on fun, low on believability.

The H-Bomb:  A mysterious man (Sam Worthington) checks into a Manhattan hotel alone.  He treats himself to an extravagant meal, then wipes the room clean of all fingerprints and climbs out the window and onto the ledge.  It’s not long before he’s spotted by some do-gooder on the street far down below, and a crowd gathers to see if he’ll jump.  Some even cheer for him to jump!  Soon the police and the media both show up, and the whole thing turns into a big fiasco.

Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks), a police psychiatrist with a drinking problem and a sad back story, is called to the scene to try and talk the man down off the ledge, and in their back and forths she gets the feeling that he’s not really suicidal, and that there is something else going on.  Of course, we the audience, through some rather clumsy flashbacks, already know more about this man than Lydia.  We know that his name is Nick Cassidy, that he is an ex-cop who went to prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit, and that he’s an escaped fugitive trying to clear his name.

But what does all that have to do with Nick dangling off the ledge in full view of hundreds of people?  Well, maybe it’s to keep people’s eyes off of what his brother, Joey (Jamie Bell) and Joey’s girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez) are doing across the street, in the diamond vaults of slimy, big shot Wall Street broker David Englander (Ed Harris).  Normally, I’d be reluctant to give that much away, but the trailer already did it for me, so I figure, the hell with it.

In fact, for the audience to enjoy “Man on a Ledge”, they’ll have to say the hell with it, too, because that is exactly the kind of movie it is.  The kind of highly contrived, ridiculously illogical thriller that Hollywood cranks out every so often.  The kind where if you scrutinize the plot, the characters, or anything that’s happening, you’ll just end up frustrating yourself, but, if you can just kick back and go with it, you’ll find it fairly enjoyable.

Basically, “Man on a Ledge” is a popcorn movie, one that wouldn’t cut the muster in the summer, hence it’s being released in January, when movie theaters resemble post-apocalyptic wastelands, but essentially it is 90 some odd minutes of pure, dumb brain candy.  Those looking for a tense, single location thriller like “Phone Booth” may be disappointed, as this actually is an overly plotted heist movie in the “Inside Man” vein, only about a thousand times more improbable, and not nearly as memorable.  It’s entertaining, but you’ll be straining to remember anything that happens in it the day after you see it.

As far as performances go, this really, truly is not a performance movie, but everyone on hand does their best. Worthington is an actor who has never interested me at all.  Frankly, I find him about as exciting as a piece of plain toast and as charismatic as a bullfrog, but here, he’s actually all right.  He hasn’t converted me into a born again Worthington fan or anything, but on this occasion, he managed to make me root for him… even though the Hasselhoff hair he sports doesn’t do him any favors.  Banks, as the alcoholic police shrink, does okay, as well, but like Worthington, I find her kind of bland.

Fortunately, the solid supporting cast does help spice up the mix.  Bell is funny as Joey, Nick’s well meaning but clumsy brother, Anthony Mackie is smooth as Nick’s best friend and a fellow cop who’s a little too interested in his predicament, and Harris hams it up nicely as the stereotypical smug, cigar sucking, fat cat bad guy.  Fans of William Sadler will be pleased to see him in a smallish role as a helpful Bellhop, it’s just too bad he looks as though he aged twenty years in the past ten. I was disappointed to see Ed Burns relegated to the throwaway role of some generic detective who spends the whole movie on the sidelines.  This guy used to be a full fledged movie star.  He helped save Private Ryan, for Christ sake!  What happened?

Of everyone in the cast, the one true standout is Genesis Rodriguez.  Never heard of her before?  Don’t worry, neither have I, but I have a hunch we all will in the near future.  Her turn as Joey’s girlfriend/amateur cat burglar is sassy, sexy, and almost steals the show.  The moment where she strips down in her bra and panties to slip into her skintight catsuit is perhaps the most hysterically gratuitous thing I have ever seen in any movie, but in a movie this hokey, it’s allowed.

And hokeyness is the order of the day with this one.  There are some intensely suspenseful moments (the bit with the news chopper is great), some nifty action towards the end, and even some laugh out loud moments throughout (the old Hippie in the crowd shouting about Attica is priceless).  It all leads to a climax that is both howlingly absurd and a little under-whelming, but if you keep your expectations modest and your brain turned off, there is fun to be had… provided you have absolutely nothing better to do.

A film, long, long overdue, in a decade not so far away

Swift shot: Despite a tacky soundtrack and a high-school AV club font for the credits which looked like it was ripped right from Windows Paint, this film delivered some solid memories.  Thanks to the previews, I was expecting it to have modern music for the sound, ala “A Knight’s Tale” and “Marie Antoinette”, but they went with a more traditional score.  I wish they had opted for the modern style, because the music never worked for me . . . granted I was focused on it the whole time.  I was also expecting a lot from the folks at Lucas’ Industrial Lights & Magic (ILM), and they didn’t let me down.  The gritty attention to detail paid to the P40 Warhawks with rusty bolts and hinges in contrast to sexy, mint P51 Mustangs was noteworthy.  The actors were a bit rough around the edges, but as the film progressed, I found myself more drawn to the characters and less focused on the film’s elements.

Set in 1944, Italy, we follow the “historical” adventures of the 332nd Fighter Group, comprised entirely of “negro” pilots and crewmen.  In 1944, the brass has decided to grant black soldiers the chance to prove they can stand toe-to-toe with any other Americans in the war effort.  One bold initiative creates the 332nd and, at least on paper, affords the men that chance.  Met with nothing but resistance along their path to become pilots, the men form a strong bond – probably more significant than most other soldiers who essentially take for granted that they have at least earned a grudging respect from their comrades.  Not so for the 332nd, everything they are doing is literally being scrutinized by everyone in the world, not just the military, and not just the Americans.  They are under a lot of pressure to be beyond good . . . thing is, the brass isn’t exactly giving them any real missions worth a damn.

And that is where we come in, after a routine mission of “killing traffic” (one of my favorite lines) their Colonel, Bullard (Terrence Howard) is called to Washington D.C. following some harsh words from the press that the negro pilot experiment is a failure.  One particularly nasty Colonel, Mortamus (Bryan “Breaking Bad” Cranston) has leaked the false story in the hopes of putting an end to them once and for all.  Now the pressure is higher than ever for them to show they can take on dangerous missions, and they are granted an air cover mission for an Allied Landing . . . Operation Shingle.  Not only do they accomplish their mission, they log some significant kills.   Speaking of killing . . . this film is incredibly violent, lots of strafing runs, lots of explosions and people meeting their mortal end.  For the most part these people were Nazis, so no one really minded, but in all wars even the good guys die, and Red Tails does show a few of the good guys eating dirt too.  In fact, with four words, the entire tone of the film shifts in one dramatic dogfight.

I read on imdb that George Lucas started this project in 1988 and couldn’t get any significant funding, because “an all black cast isn’t going to sell tickets”.  Interestingly, he foot most of the bill for this film himself, and stylized the leads after historical figures from black civil rights lore, Easy, or Capt Marty Julian (Nate Parker) was inspired on Martin Luther King, Jr.  Lightning, or Capt Joe Little (David Oyelowo) was inspired on Malcolm X, and considering the screenplay was co-written by the controversial “Boondocks” writer Aaron McGruder, it makes perfect sense.  His characters are always bigger than life and inspired on great men and women.

The other characters make up a fairly motley crew of pilots and mechanics which reminded me a lot of the Black Sheep Squadron that I used to watch with my dad, with clever call-signs and a bit of arrogance and flair.  There really were too many to list here, but my favorite supporting actor would have to be Ne-Yo as Smokey who delivers the most clever line of the film.

I wanted to like this one a little bit more, and it is a freakin’ crying shame that in 2012 no one stepped up to the plate and assisted George Lucas to the point where this film was on an epic scale, I wasn’t overly impressed with Terrence Blanchard when I am spoiled with John Williams doing Lucas’ other scores and some other elements felt tacked on at the end as well.  In once scene, Lightning takes on an entire Officer’s Club filled with white pilots, and he is in the stockade the next scene without a scratch on him, not so much as a hangnail.  That might fly in an amateur’s reel, but not when I see Lucas’ name attached.  Ultimately, this film was not all that it could, and should, have been.  The aerial combat sequences were tight and magnificent, and I really have not one bad thing to say about them.  The story was interesting, but I felt that a lot of the film was rushed in order to get as much “history” into the final edits and I think some things should have been cut out altogether.

As far as the historical accuracy of this film, I will let you do your own research.  But in my research it was interesting to see that even as late as this decade, controversy over the historical accuracy of the documented combat missions still hasn’t been soundly put to rest.  Perhaps this film will serve to do what it was ultimately intended to do, get Americans, black, white, red, yellow, blue, purple, green, who cares, to care about the sacrifices of these ‘colored’ men who not only had to fight a war, they had to fight to earn even a modicum of respect in their “free” country.  We all have battles, and we have all had to deal with prejudices, but I challenge anyone to say these aviators weren’t some of the most mentally tough men to ever wear wings.  The Red Tailed Angels of the sky.

You almost never see God, but the devil makes his presence known . . . daily

Swift shot: The Vatican does not authorize the recording of any exorcisms, this was the film’s disclaimer, and at my screening they actually had priests handing out the Prayer of Saint Christopher on little slips of paper.  Right before the film started, those same priests reminded us that while the devil is real, we have free will.  Nice touch, and it added a little bit of creepy atmosphere to the whole experience.  I wasn’t scared while watching this film; it played out as a mockumentary, and it was handled well, albeit a tad predictable in places, but I would see it again if someone else paid or once it is on cable.  Running just under 91 minutes, it had a great knack of keeping my attention the entire time and never became boring.

It’s 1989, South Hartford, Connecticut, and we are led on a police CSI type video walk-through of a crime scene of pure graphic, gory horror.  In what looks like a quaint, normal, suburb home, we see up close and personal the cadavers strewn about the house . . . all with one thing immediately in common, they are members of the clergy, or more to the point, were.  The classic film-footage was excellent, I think they may have actually borrowed some from an actual multiple slaying crime from that area and time.  It had the right amount of grain to make me think I was back in 1989.  As we see the footage, the police are escorting a frail looking house-mother into the back of a police cruiser, it’s Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley).

Now it is 2009, twenty years later, and we meet Isabella Rossi (Fernanda Andrade), who lived her life thinking her mother was deranged, but just three days before her father dies, he tells her why her mother was moved from the states to Rome, Italy.  Turns out when her mother killed all those people of the cloth, they were conducting an exorcism on Maria.  Now a young woman, Isabella is driven to find out the truth about her mother and enlists the help of a film-maker to foot the bill and capture the results of her endeavors on camera.  She hasn’t seen her mother since she was eight years old, probably just as well.

To add some substance to the documentary, film-maker, Michael (Ionut Grama) manages to get his camera in some pretty restricted areas.  Isabella and he are invited to film a session at the Vatican School for Exorcism, which was also featured in ”The Rite”.   They are permitted film access to the Centrino Hospital in Rome that now houses the disturbed Maria Rossi.  But, as her doctor explains, it has been years since her last violent outbreak, because they have a strict no religion and no excitement policy when it comes to Maria.  But, just in case, her outer cell containment area is emblazoned with several crosses.

After the class, Isabella meets two priests that are, in fact, rogue exorcists that are not sanctioned by the Vatican . . . or are they?  Father Ben (Simon Quaterman) is young and ambitious and disagrees with the Vatican’s revision to permitting exorcisms which was released in 1999, essentially it makes it impossible to exorcise anyone, because the signs needed to require an exorcism aren’t typically present until the exorcism is actually happening.  A nice little, Catch-666 if you will permit me.  His fellow rogue is Father David (Evan Helmuth) who wants to help, but he doesn’t want to sacrifice anything real to help people.  Ben wants to save the world from the devil, and Isabella just wants validation that her mom isn’t crazy, because Dissociative Identity Disorder is genetic.  So, if her mom is possessed, she won’t have to worry about being a psycho herself.

The film reminds us that there are four signs needed to declare a bona fide possession: Preternatural strength; aversion to holy relics and symbols; speaking in foreign tongues; and objects moving by themselves while near the victim.   But, while few of us know anyone who has ever been possessed, we all know of a story not too far from home where a seemingly normal person slaughters his/her whole family.  It happens especially during the holy months, so while this film didn’t scare me as I watched it, it reminded me of the real horrors people commit every day that sometimes defy science and nature.  I was reminded of the chilling Yates case, where the Texas mother violently drowned all of her children because “God told her to do it”.  Who needs Hollywood to scare you, whether the devil is real or not, people can be manipulated by all manner of forces, light and dark.  Say your prayers tonight that you don’t start hearing little voices telling you to get creative.  If you want real terror, just turn on the news for more than twenty minutes . . . you will find the devil.

The film was worth the trip, gas and ticket price, but I think it is better watched at home with some open-minded friends who scare easily, because ten minutes after the film you can roll your eyes back into your head and start speaking Latin to them . . . all the better if you have mastered climbing the walls like a cockroach.

“Next time I seduce the rich guy.”

Swift shot: Mission Improbable is a better title, or maybe Mission Incredible – as in has no credence.  I go into these types of films with a high suspension of disbelief tolerance, but when the very element that MAKES this not just a “spy film” but rather an IMF film is so poorly executed, where even one of the lead characters has the line “it was all dumb luck” – yea, dumb luck is what critics call convenient writing.  If you walk out of the film thinking anything other than “how convenient” – I challenge your level of intellectual imagination.

Whenever I watch a film where I repeat that throughout, in my head, odds are I am not impressed with the story or the writing, and Ghost Protocol is no exception.  Apparently being disavowed agents means squat to Interpol, CIA, Mossad, MI6, anyone who matters, because these jokers were flitting from country to country with nary a care in the world, all whilst being declared the greatest threat to global security since Bin Laden.  They tried to account for everything, but overall it was that dreaded convenient writing rearing its ugly head all too many times.

Still, I didn’t feel like I wasted my money, there was plenty of action and international intrigue with a bit of sex appeal to season the script.  The film was visually superb with even the opening credits offering a glimpse of what was to come. While this was produced by my favorite production studio and the Bad Robot team with many of J. J. Abrams loyal actors used throughout, the whole thing felt flat and contrived, like the whole point in making this film was to allow Tom Cruise a literal platform to scale .  . . this time the world’s tallest building.

I didn’t see MI3, and I can’t even remember much about MI2, but I did enjoy the “original” MI film when it first ran in theaters.  I guess if I had seen MI3 I would know the significance of Ethan Hunt’s wife’s untimely demise.  That seemed to be a pivotal plot point in this film, but I really didn’t care about these characters that much, even with Simon Pegg affording us a few laughs.  Jeremy Renner stood up well in his scenes with Cruise as Chief Analyst Brandt, actually playing the role of film-critic within the film.  I appreciate when film makers incorporate that element, because they are trying to answer their critics, and Brandt’s constant questions were indeed the same ones jiffy popping in my head, minus the butter, of course.

Paula Patton didn’t suck as Agent Jane, and I didn’t really find out much about Pegg’s character, Benji, if he had a back-story, it wasn’t developed at all in the theatrical release. Michael Nyqvist steps into this international cast as the evil genius, as his Millenium role is being played by the current James Bond.  It would all be surreal, if the rest of the film’s incredulity didn’t demand more attention.  In one climactic scene, Hunt is fighting with Nyqvist’s character, Hendricks, who is reported to have an IQ over 190, but they neglected to mention that this scientist also was trained in some form of martial art that Hunt can’t seem to best . . . how convenient!  And, in one of those “mask reveal” moments, they had someone pretending to be someone else that made absolutely no sense . . . period.  See if you catch it.

I am always asked, that’s great Rick, we know how you felt about the film, but what was it about?  Simply put, international genius, nutball, wants to do global damage and only the exposed and disavowed IMF “team” can stop it.  What, like you need anything else?  If you are a fan of the original series, skip this one, if you like your popcorn flicks with lots of fatty butter and want to just enjoy the action, see it!

Read David Limacher’s interview with Darryl, here: A chat with Darryl Roberts

Limacher Low Down: America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments is a follow up to the 2007 Documentary America the Beautiful. The first movie dealt with the issues of Americans doing what they can to look better. America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments provides greater insight into Body Mass Index (BMI), the world of weight loss, diets, and the infatuation people seem to have with believing that being thin means that a person is healthy. The movie provides insight into these topics, and Director Darryl Roberts offers himself as a test subject to test some diets and hypotheses as well.

We start off the movie by gaining a better understanding of the Body Mass Index or BMI. This is the scale that dictates whether people are healthy, overweight, or obese. Did you know that stars such as Will Smith, Mel Gibson, and Christian Bale are considered overweight according the BMI scale? Hell, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is considered OBESE when measured by the BMI scale. The BMI scale says if a person is a certain height, they need to weigh a certain amount or they are overweight or obese! The movie offers a great insight into the falsities of the BMI scale and certain reasons why the scale has shown great importance to certain people.

The movie then moves to Darryl getting a physical by his doctor, and he learns that he has an irregular heart beat and high blood pressure. This is an alarming fact which affects more people than care to realize it. It gets worse for Darryl when the doctor prescribes him two medications which could result in a man’s WORST NIGHTMARE, Erectile Dysfunction! Darryl realizes that it is now up to him to do whatever he can to not need the medication, and cure his problems as well.

Darryl decides to attempt a “Raw” diet. Raw diets are a basic vegan diet in which foods are provided that starts with a 4 week cleanse of all the toxins in the system to start properly on the diet. After speaking with people who have succeeded on the diet, he decides to give it a try. The scenes in which Darryl is on the “Raw” diet offer a funny and honest portrayal of what most people experience. Darryl doesn’t stop there; he goes through a gauntlet of diets all of which provide the same results.

The movie next focuses on High Fructose Corn Syrup. There is great insight into the reasons behind the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup as well. When certain people are questioned about High Fructose Corn Syrup, the subject is quickly changed or the subject is just ignored all together. Facts are provided and should hold the interest of most viewers.

Next we meet Candi, a person so infatuated with looking good, and being a certain way that it has taken over her life. She works out in the morning, goes to work, and then works out after work as well. Candi is so infatuated that she and Darryl head off to the gym in the middle of a blizzard that closed down Chicago. She believes that all the work she is putting in will pay off. But where does it end? She hits her goal, and then sets a new goal. She gets questioned when her figure and weight will finally be good enough, and it seems only she knows just when it will be good enough.

There is one scene that has stuck with me, and will continue to stick with me for years to come. In one of the most heart wrenching scenes in the movie, Darryl’s half sister admits to him a secret that she never told him. She had the courage to tell him for the first time on camera as well. It took real courage for her to do it, and her Doctor gave her advice to help her with the problem she had in the past. Her doctor had told her that her BMI was too high to conceive a child. Her Doctor was transfixed on the BMI scale that he has her believing that if she wants to have a child, she must lose weight and be at a BMI of less than 25%. It really makes a person wonder if this is true, or what facts either party has to go off to show this is true.

Focus now moves to BMI and education. Schools in Ohio are now mandated to place the BMI number of students in 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 9th grade on their report cards so parents get more involved! Superintendents are interviewed about why they petitioned to no longer subject their students to placement of the BMI scale on their report cards. They provide some interesting facts, and provide good reason as to why they chose to do what they did. The State Senator who wrote and helped pass the bill into law was interviewed as well. He seemed so obsessed with living by the BMI scale, he seemed blinded by the facts Darryl provided thus far.

Darryl does a good job of providing facts behind the BMI, the people who lowered the number back in 1998, and also into the CDC. He provided interesting insight to different factors that may have been overlooked as well. The facts and figures are out there, it is just how a person chooses to view them that make all the difference. But Darryl is not done there. He chats with psychiatrists and nutritionists about weight loss, and the facts they provide are eye opening as well.

The movie does a good job of giving a better understanding into the obsession with weight and being thin. Is it healthy? Are diets healthy? Is there one solution to the problem? The questions may go unanswered, but are left for the viewer to decide. The humor flows freely, and it helps progress the movie along well. There are points when the movie doesn’t progress well, and the fact some questions are left unanswered left me with more questions than answers. The movie was well done, and I would suggest it for anyone who questions diets, or the reasoning why America has the infatuation with looking a certain way.

Warning:  If you haven’t read the books, these reviews may contain spoilers!  Also, the vampires sparkle in the sunlight, so . . . yea, there’s that.

“Troll!!!!!!”

Swift shot:  Part “Blair Witch Project”, part “Monsters” – - – ALL TROLL!

I wasn’t too thrilled by the film opening with that “recovered footage” concept, but it can be overlooked as just a means to pragmatically set the film in an authentic light. Few people, even Norwegians, believe in trolls, but after watching this film, I would wager a few more believers come out of the darkness.

If you have ever visited, or lived in, Norway you know there are vast landscapes seemingly both uninhabited or more to the point, uninhabitable.  I used to drive around Norway and see these little villages high up in the mountains with a few power lines running way up top, maybe about twenty small houses in the whole village and I would wonder how they got there, or why even.  Making a grocery run from there must be hell.  So, what if one of those folks candidly told you, “Sure, we have trolls.”  How likely would you be to believe them?  “Troll Hunter” takes it a step farther as a group of, mostly annoying, college kids set out to make a film about a mysterious string of bear attacks.

Hailing from Volda College, Thomas (the talent), Kalle (the cameraman) and Johanna (the boom girl) begin interviewing some government sanctioned bear hunters.  Without exception, the hunters keep mentioning a guy in an SUV who is a nuisance and probably a poacher, but he isn’t too likely to take interviews.  Intrigued, the students set out to find this character.  As they investigate him, they unravel a deeper national secret!

Like most college students, they think they know everything and again, like most college students, they don’t know much!  Eventually cornering the elusive Hans, they rapidly discover just how little they know about their country.  Not only that, their faith is tested in probably THE MOST novel way I have ever seen in film.  I won’t give it away here, but suffice it to say, their religious beliefs play a key part in the story.  Quickly they discover trolls are real!   They are determined to chronicle as much about them as possible.

While I found the film fun and adventurous, the students really annoyed me, if that was by design, kudos to the director, if not I think some better dialog may have aided the film.  At one point I was like, Thomas, if you smirk into the camera one more time . . .  Sure, the script did a good job of making the footage as authentic as possible, with seemingly mundane lines that “real people” might share, but I never really got to know any of the characters.  Granted, that is difficult to pull off in a mockumentary horror film – but for me, if I don’t care about the characters, I won’t feel anything if/when they get  turned into troll jerky.  Most people have large egos, and even more so when they are on film, so I think there were some blown opportunities to flesh out the characters more with dialog that exposes their nature.  Hans was one exception; we found out the most about him – which is ironic, because he was the elusive one.

The special effects in this movie were incredibly well done, and the use of different lenses, angles, even odors (whilst only imagined) gave a very tactile and credible aspect to the trolls that US Psy-Ops teams should heed.  If the trolls came across as CGI cartoons or Godzilla like puppets, the film would have sucked.  Thankfully, the trolls were handled with a professionalism some big-time Hollywood producers should emulate – yea, Green Lantern, I am looking at you . . . again.  When it comes to special effects, there needs to be at least a modicum of veracity. “Troll Hunter” delivered as advertised; the film-makers deserve high praise for doing a good job of building persuasive (even scientific) evidence that trolls could be very real.

Now, let’s assume, for fun, that trolls are real, because with all the unpopulated earth, much like space and the sea, there are probably still some creatures we have yet to discover.  Does anyone remember a little film in the 80′s, “The Abyss”?  If nothing else, this film sheds light on a monster that hasn’t seen much play in Hollywood lately, with all these sparkling vampires, shirtless werewolves, and walking dead folks – I was relieved to see a “new” monster on film.  And, unlike “Troll 2″, in “Troll Hunter” there will be trolls!  This one is definitely worth a watch, and film students should take note of the superb editing as well.

“You brought a gun to a f*ckin’ bomb fight!”

The H-Bomb: When Dwayne (Danny McBride), a thirty-something deadbeat do nothing, decides that he doesn’t want to wait for his rich, former-Marine father (Fred Ward) to keel over so he can collect his inheritance, he decides to have his old man whacked, just like in the movies. However, hiring a hit-man is going to cost him $100,000. So he, along with his slow witted, bomb building friend Travis (Nick Swarsdon), lure slacker pizza boy Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) out to their place and strap a bomb to him. The bomb is fitted with a timer, and if Nick doesn’t get them their cash by the time it runs out, then he will go ka-boom… and that would be bad for him, wouldn’t it?

So Nick, in pure panic mode, enlists the help of his estranged best friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari), to rob a bank and get these losers their money before he ends up in tiny little Nick pieces. The whole bank robbing thing doesn’t exactly go smoothly, much to the audience’s surprise, I’m sure, and the situation only gets worse when Dwayne’s hit-man Chango (Michael Pena) shows up looking for his money.

Brought to you by the director of “Zombieland”, “30 Minutes or Less” does have some hype leading up to its release. Does it live up to that hype? Well, if you’re expecting something as fresh and funny as “Zombieland”, then you will be somewhat let down. But, if you keep “Zombieland” out of mind, and judge the flick on its own, then I think you’ll find it is a quick, easy to watch action comedy that is fun, if not spectacular.

Myself, I actually laughed throughout “30 Minutes or Less”, and would be lying if I said I didn’t find it constantly amusing. But, thinking back on it, most of the laughs came through the one liners, the most memorable of which I used in the review’s subtitle, and for the most part, the movie is pretty unmemorable. That’s not to say I’ve forgotten most of it (How did it end again? Oh yeah, something blows up.), it’s just that there weren’t any real big laughs that stood out.

I think about the scenes that should have been hilarious show stoppers, like the bank robbery, or the big standoff at the end, and I realize that they were merely amusing, inducing only chuckles as opposed to all out laughter. As for the action half of this “action comedy,” the action scenes are entertaining (particularly a big car chase scene), but not really exciting or suspenseful.

The cast is energetic and overall great. Since most of the laughs in the movie come from the dialogue, the actors are the big reason to see it. That’s not to say anyone really stretches here. Eisenberg plays his typical high strung, fast talking nerd character, though this time he’s an underachieving nerd, so I guess that’s a departure from “The Social Network”. McBride is again a loser, only here he’s a sinister loser, and next to Swardson, the smart one. Ward is funny, even though his character, a hard ass ex-military type, is a rather dull clichĂ©.  Ansari was the real standout for me. His character is kind of a creep, but a likeable creep who’s first introduced to us getting head and kissing afterwards. The biggest laugh I got is when we’re shown what he does for a living. Who would let their children around this guy?

The title “30 Minutes or Less” comes from a poorly conceived delivery campaign that a major pizza chain tried out some years back, but aside from a gag that introduces Nick’s character at the beginning of the movie, the phrase “30 Minutes or Less” doesn’t really factor into the plot
 unless you consider that the whole story has a ticking clock element, but whatever. Apparently, it is based (very, very, very, very loosely) on a real incident, which was covered in Amadarwin’s review, so I won’t go into it here.

If you’re into movies like “Zombieland” or “Pineapple Express”, Hard R-rated comedies that dispense bloodshed and raunchy sex jokes in equal doses, then you’ll probably dig “30 Minutes or Less”, just bear in mind, it‘s not as good as either of those. At a scant 83 minutes, it’s too short to be boring, and, as said, is fairly funny through most of that quick running time. It’s just that overall, it never reached the level of hilarity that it should have, and it just isn’t much to write home about. If you’ve seen all the big blockbusters playing at a theater near you, then I say check it out. Otherwise, this is one for the Instant Queue.

It seems that the concert movie is the latest craze.  I’ve seen Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” and also The Black Eyed Peas at the movie theater in concert movie form.  Last year there was Justin Beiber’s concert film, and previous entries into this category included Miley Cyrus (or was it Hannah Montana??) and The Jonas Brothers.  Well “Glee:  The 3D Concert Movie” is the latest and greatest concert movie.  And, even better, it’s in 3D.  (That was sarcasm.  The 3D was not necessary)

“Glee” is like a non-Disneyfied version of “High School Musical”.  Non-Disneyfied because the students in the Glee Club at William McKinley High aren’t concerned with basketball games or which college to apply to or the Spring Musical (don’t get me wrong, I love the “HSM” movies.  They are positive and fun).  Instead, they deal with issues including:  teenage pregnancy, being gay, bullying, love triangles, drinking, and sex, none of which would ever come up in any “High School Musical” movie.

“Glee:  The 3D Concert Movie” was the best part of “Glee” – the performances, with none of the drama, just singing and dancing.   In between the musical numbers, we see behind-the-scenes footage of the cast preparing for the show.  And, since this is “Glee” in concert, not the stars of “Glee” in concert, the actors are always in character, which was clever and made for some fun moments.  For example, Rachel Berry is told that Barbara Streisand (her idol) will be in the audience for that show (she wasn’t really), and in true Rachel Berry style, she proceeds to freak out.

The performance that was filmed for the movie was a show in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  In addition to the behind-the-scenes footage we meet three individuals from the area who share stories about how “Glee” inspired their lives.  We also meet fans who scream and shout and cheer for their favorite characters, including an adorable little Asian boy who idolizes Blaine from the Warblers (the all-male a capella group from another school, Dalton Academy).  He even dresses as a mini Warbler and sings and dances to Warbler tunes.  Too cute!

Included in the performances are “Don’t Stop Believin’”, the unofficial “Glee” anthem, “I’m a Slave 4 U” (a somewhat raunchy performance which would make the real Britney proud), “Fat Bottomed Girls” (a very fun rock version of the song, complete with Puck playing guitar), “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” (Artie sang in his wheelchair while Mike did the dancing, complete with copious crotch-grabbing), “Valerie” (a very fun performance by Santana with Brittany and Mike dancing), “Firework” (the wonderful Katy Perry song performed energetically by Rachel), “Forget You”  (does Gwyneth Paltrow just show up anywhere someone hands her a microphone??), “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (a great performance by Kurt, not as sad as the version in the TV episode), and “Born This Way”, where just like in the episode, everyone wears their identifying T-shirts.  [Click here for the complete song list and cast]

The only negatives about “Glee:  The 3D Concert Movie” were that for most of the songs, they didn’t perform the entire song.  I know on the TV show they sometimes don’t perform the whole song, but on the soundtracks they always do.  So I wasn’t sure why they cut parts of the songs out for the concert.  Also, the two best characters from “Glee” were not included in the concert at all:  the ultra-dreamy, totally awesome Spanish teacher/Glee Club director, Mr. Schuester, and everyone’s favorite cheerleading coach that we love to hate, Sue Sylvester.  (Supposedly, Sue will be included in the DVD version of the concert movie).  I also could have done with less of the fans throughout the show.  I think it’s fine before the concert starts, to interview the fans, but during the show, it kind of took away from the performances.

If you go see “Glee:  The 3D Concert Movie”, see it with a fellow fan (as I did).  You’ll have fun together and you will have a hard time staying in your seat (I did my fair share of bopping around in my seat during the performance!!)